Thursday, September 28, 2006

Prashant Newaskar


Extract of my recent speech as the key-note speaker at the one day symposium of the Graduate Students Association (GSA) of the National University of Singapore on the 22nd September 2006.

FPSOs

Mankind depends on Oil & Gas for energy, fuel, textiles, plastics, solvents, pharmaceuticals etc. In the beginning, Oil & Gas production was mainly from shore fields. Subsequently, production commenced from offshore fields as well.

Initially fixed platforms were used to produce Oil & Gas from offshore fields. As the discoveries moved deeper offshore, it called for innovation in terms of the types of structures used. This heralded an era of Compliant Towers, Tension Leg Platforms (TLP), Spars, Semi-submersibles etc., which were used to handle production from a variety of depths / complex situations.

Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) was another innovation in the production facility for handling Oil & Gas production. FPSOs offer many advantages compared to fixed platforms – Storage Capacity, much larger real estate - obviating the need for export pipelines etc. FPSO can be used in a variety of water depths. They can be moved from one location to another. This capability to redeploy is highly advantageous for marginal fields.

FPSOs are called the work horses of offshore industry. There are close to 180 FPSOs, currently in operation and many more are planned. The planned expenditure in this field in the next 5 to 10 years will be in the range of over forty billion Dollars. FPSOs are of great interest to us in view of their economic contribution, technical challenges and employment potential.

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